For the second year running, Honolulu officials are seeking grant proposals aimed at improving and assisting Leeward and Wai'anae Coast communities.

About $2 million has been earmarked for the area in the form of benefits from the island's municipal landfill, which is on the Wai'anae Coast.

Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, who held a three-hour town meeting on that subject in Nanakuli on Tuesday, said the move highlights his pledge to support needs of residents of O'ahu's Leeward Coast who have been affected by the Waimanalo Gulch landfill.

Those communities include Kalaeloa, Kapolei, Honokai Hale/Nanakai Gardens, Ko Olina, Makakilo, Nanakuli, Ma'ili, Wai'anae, Makaha and Kea'au, the mayor said.

Joseph Lapilio, of the Wai'anae Coast Coalition, said the idea has produced positive results.

"We received a small grant from the first year of funding that's helping us create a 'community portal,' our Web site that will benefit the community. The key for us was a resource directory that would let people find what kind of services they need. And we wouldn't have been able to do that without the funding."

Individual grants from $25,000 to $100,000 will be awarded for public-service activities designed to address the area's homeless population, people with addictions or special health needs, low-income families and people who are unemployed, said city Community Services Director Debbie Kim Morikawa.

Money would also be given for projects to renovate public or community-based facilities, she said.

Morikawa said her office has tried to streamline the process to enable smaller organizations in the area to take advantage of the opportunity.

"Other grants that we give out from our department have so many federal restrictions on them that it makes it very difficult," said Morikawa, who explained that those restrictions generally apply to grants for much larger amounts.

"We've tried to make it easier for those small groups who don't always need a lot of money to do the good that they do. We've tried to make it so they can get the funds quickly with the least amount of bureaucracy."

The grants would "allow the city to support the specific programs and services most needed and desired by the community, as identified by the community," said Morikawa.

Not only will those getting the grants be from the community, but so will the dozen or so people who sit on the city's Community Benefits Advisory Committee — who go through proposal applications and make the selections.

One such person is Patty Teruya, the city's special events coordinator, who also chairs the Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board. She said the committee is looking for proposals from established nonprofit organizations in good standing with practical, focused ideas that would actually make an improvement.

She said accountability is an important issue. They expect results, she said.

"We follow up to see that the money was justified," she said. "You can't just 'have it.' We don't want to see it wasted. We want to see it serve the Wai'anae Coast."

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.